The Best Years Fly By Quickly
by Rinne-Kami
Summary: Naruto and Sasuke as best friends are thrown out of a private school. Given a chance in the prestigeous public school Rikudo High they are thrust into a world unknown to them. Will they be able to survive this brand new challenge?
1. A New Beginning

**A/N:** Yo! My fifth fic! As promised, a Konoha High style fic. A oneshot at the moment. Not the most appealing of titles I know, but it's more original.

Multiple reasons why I wrote this, inspiration by a fic call Camp Romances, a good NaruHina central fic. Last time I checked it was about 30 chapters long. Check it out if you've got time. Inspiration from KHS by Damleg *Translated by Onhikage* on Deviantart. A great Konoha high Doujin. Inspiration from Bad Boy's Heart by Badazz writer (I think) for Naruto's band. And some personal reasons which I will now rant. I am sick and tired of schoolkids bitching about how much they hate school and how their life at school sucks, now I hated school, but I've left, I can have more negative comments about it now, I can look back and say "that sucked!". I'm in college now, and honestly, I'd rather be back in school. It easy easily the easiest years of your life, after the day when you crapped in diapers. I'm in college, the work is hard. I need to know what I want out of my future, and I just can't find a career that interests me. So I wrote this fic in hopes that when these whiny school kids read it, they realise that school doesn't suck as bad as they think. People change in college, your friends drift off. Remember this, and don't do drugs. Do smiles :D

Anyway rant over. Pairings have been decided, so suggestions can be given, but I'd need a lot of persuading to change my plans. Two of the pairings are quite rare, one only has five fics marked with that pairing. the other only has one, see if you can find it.

Band members picked, again a little cliche but my stories like I like my rap. Old school.

I rated it M to be safe. There is a backstory that might not be suitable so be warned.

Well that's about it, see you in however long it takes for you to read this chapter.

CURTAINS UP!

* * *

"Hey. Hey. Hey, Naruto wake up."

Each hey was accompanied by a poke to the head. The voice was becoming louder, and it sounded annoyed. The voice was drilling through Naruto's sleepy 16 year old head.

"What." Naruto mumbled into his pillow, spiky yellow hair blocking his head from view.

"When I said you could stay the night, that didn't mean you could stay in my room." The voice pointed out. Still quite ticked off.

"Shut up, Sasuke." Naruto mumbled, turning on his side, sure enough it was morning. The light broke through small cracks around the curtains, one hitting him directly in the face. He saw Sasuke standing above him. Where a plain white collared shirt with matching black pant. Formal black dress shoes on his feet. Naruto stared at him distastefully through sleepy eyes. "I was having a good dream. What's with the get up?"

"We start our new school today, remember." Sasuke looked down at Naruto. "The public one. Rikudō High, apparently it's very prestigious and the demand a lot."

Naruto shot up, his body still slouched giving one massive yawn while stretching his back, he grinned madly. "I was never too good at school. I'm surprised they let my stay in that private one for so long."

"But they kicked you out, didn't they." Sasuke pointed out the obvious. "And they kicked me out with you. For being an 'accomplice'."

Naruto continued grinning. "Admit it Sasuke, you hated it there. I know you, all those rules and regulations. You felt like just another sheep in the herd."

Sasuke sighed, shaking his head while doing so. "Whatever. Just get dressed."

* * *

Two plates had already been set out in front of them. Bacon, Eggs, Beans a full breakfast. Naruto began gorging instantly. But being careful not to spill anything on his white shirt. His attire was exactly the same as Sasuke's but his feet were adorned with plain white sneakers.

"Your cooking's so good, Mikoto-san! You're always so nice to me!" Naruto smiled at Sasuke's mom, who was currently still washing dishes from preparing the big breakfast. Naruto not stopping eating as he spoke to her.

Mikoto laughed softly over her shoulder. "Thank you, Naruto. I promised Kushina that I would look after you. That includes a nice breakfast."

Naruto stopped eating, his fork fell onto the plate. His face falling along with it. That was never a good sign. Once a meal was placed in front of Naruto, he wouldn't stop until the plate was emptied. Sasuke knew that subject was hard for Naruto, so he quickly changed it. "Any news on Itachi, mom?"

Mikoto's eyebrows rose. "Oh yes. He and his art group finally received their funding." Her face lit up. "They start touring the country with their art soon and will be returning to town in a few months."

Sasuke nodded, turning his attention back to his food. But Mikoto wasn't finished.

"I'm glad things finally picked up for him. I still remember the day he told your dad that that was what he wanted to do."

Sasuke could remember it too. The fury in his father's voice was unimaginable. Itachi had received extraordinary results in his examinations, and his father all ready had Itachi's career set up. But Itachi wasn't having it. He shouted in return, saying that he want control of his own life. Itachi left that night without saying goodbye. He kept in contact with his mom, but he rarely came to visit in person.

"Let's go, Naruto." Sasuke spoke. Naruto had already finished eating, he nodded, standing up with Sasuke and saying goodbye to Mikoto. They walked together into the garage, flicking the lights on.

They lit up instantly. Naruto and Sasuke looked around, they had a few cars, and a motorbike each. Naruto kept his motorbike at Sasuke's house, seeing as that was where he would ride it too.

"So which one should we take?" Naruto looked over to Sasuke, who had his eye on one car in particular.

"It's our first day, so we don't want to bring too much attention to ourselves." Sasuke smirked, already moving towards his choice.

Naruto sighed under his breath. "So he picks the Chrysler ME 4-12."

* * *

Ino played with her platinum blond hair. Sorting it out into place. He was walking past, she needed to look her best. She caught a glimpse of his purple eyes framed perfectly by his medium length blue tinted white hair. His uniform was the same as everyone else. But he looked so much better.

Ino sorted out her loose black skirt and made sure her stockings were pulled up high. Her white shirt wasn't a problem. She waited for him to close, but he walked straight passed her, deep in a conversation with another student.

Ino sighed in defeat, turning to her pink haired friend. Who had been standing quietly next to her. "You think Suigetsu even knows I exist?"

Sakura turned to her. "I wouldn't worry about it. Hey! Did you here? We're getting two new boys this term."

At that moment a low, silver car drove in. The doors opened. From the drivers seat a boy with onyx black hair and a pair of eyes two match stepped out. From the passenger side, a boy with bright blonde hair and big blue eyes appeared. The dark haired boy locked the door electronically, walking straight through the crowds, seemingly unaware that everyone was staring at them.

The blonde one did know, he waved madly to some people as he walked passed. Girls giggled, guys scowled. Many girls had blushes on their faces because of the two of them.

"Not bad." Ino admitted.

However Sakura couldn't hear her. She was entranced, the way he held himself. How he calmly looked at everything. This new boy, he was different.

Naruto and Sasuke entered the building. The front walls were mostly built of glass, but rock came in the building the further they went in. A receptionist sat at the desk in the entrance. Shortish black hair. She looked over to the two of them and smiled, gesturing them to come over.

"You must be Naruto Namikaze and Sasuke Uchiha. Principal Tsunade has been expecting you." She smiled widely, pointing them to the flight of stairs that would lead to the Principal's office.

Naruto and Sasuke climbed them, there was only one door when they reached the top. The door was small but grand. Naruto and Sasuke moved towards it. Sasuke was about to knock, but Naruto just opened it and walked straight on in.

The principal seemed prepared for such an action from him. "Do you know how much trouble you are, Naruto?" The principal yelled at him, Naruto panicked at the tone of her voice.

Naruto's panic faded pretty quickly, grinning madly. "You wouldn't have me any other way, Tsunade-baa-chan!"

Principal Tsunade smirked. "You are one lucky bastard, Naruto. Jiraiya pulled a lot of strings to get you and Sasuke in here. Sasuke was easy, but your records. But that's besides the point, I am your principal now. So you shall refer to me as such. If I so much as hear you whisper baa-chan about me again. I'll expel you faster than you can say oh."

Naruto gulped hard. "Yes, Principal Tsunade." He mumbled out quietly.

Tsunade smiled again. "Now, at Rikudō high, Maths, Science and English are compulsory. However to fill out your busy weekdays, you must selected five optional courses of your own choosing. You could take advanced courses of any of the compulsory subjects if you pleased. Here is a list of what the school offers." She threw the sheet at Naruto and Sasuke, followed by two pens. "Tick the boxes next to the subjects you wish to take."

Naruto and Sasuke hovered over the list, mumbling a conversation at even from Tsunade's distance, she couldn't interpret. The pen's ticked the five boxes on the sheet. Both boys handing it and the pens back to her.

Naruto had selected PE, Music, Mechanics, Geography and Catering. While Sasuke had chosen PE, Music, Mechanics, Art and Law. Tsunade sent the sheet through the fax machine. "Shizune will collect that and create suitable time schedules for each of you. Now that that's done, we'll assign you home rooms." Tsunade grinned at Naruto's panicked face.

"Please, Principal Tsunade. Can you put us in the same home room?" Naruto almost begged, he wanted to know at least one person.

Tsunade looked at him silently for a few moments. "If it will keep you quiet. You and Sasuke will go to room 315. That is your home room, you a required to attend every Monday and Friday morning, for the schools bulletins or to get help from your home room teacher. On your timetable their will be free periods, they will be yours to do what you wish. But I suggest you use them to catch up with work you might fall behind on."

She pressed a button on her desk. "Shizune, you may send Suigetsu up now."

A few moments passed. Then a boy entered, with medium length blue-tinted white hair. The typical uniform, but with black sneakers on his feet. "You wanted to see me." He grinned as he entered the room.

"Yes. Naruto, Sasuke, this is Suigetsu Hozuki. Suigetsu, this is Naruto Namikaze and Sasuke Uchiha. I have assigned you to show them around a bit." Tsunade explained to him. Suigetsu nodded at the two of them.

"You guys were in that Chrysler. That was a sweet ride dude." Suigetsu grinned at the both of them.

"Thanks." Sasuke replied for the both of them.

"Good." Tsunade spoke up. "Go down to Shizune to pick up your time tables. Go on, get out of my face!"

The three of them quickly high tailed it out of her office. Going back to the receptionist, she handed them their schedules. Suigetsu peeked over both of them.

"Oh cool. You're in my home room. I'll give you a quick tour on the way there." Suigetsu continued grinning. Naruto and Sasuke followed him. Going around Suigetsu showed them the cafeteria. The main hall, a few classes, he took them up two flights of stairs and along a corridor, arriving at room 315. "Well here we are. I wish I could have given a better tour, but it'll have to do for now." He smiled once more, before entering the class room. Naruto and Sasuke followed in after him.

* * *

The room had erupted in chatter, no one even noticed they came in. Suigetsu had already waved goodbye and sat with people he knew. Naruto spotted two empty seats right at the back, quickly taking them for him and Sasuke. Sasuke sat down next to him.

"Lets go over out schedules. See what we have together." Sasuke suggested, taking out his time table. Naruto took his out, placing it next to Sasuke's.

_Name: Sasuke Uchiha_

_Homeroom: 315_

_Time - Monday - Tuesday - Wednesday - Thursday - Friday_

_08:30 - Homeroom - Music - Art - Science - Homeroom_

_09:45 - Law - Science - Maths - Free - English_

_11:00 - Maths - English - Free - Mechanics - Music_

_12:30 - Lunch - Lunch - Lunch - Lunch - Lunch_

_14:00 - Art - Free - English - Law - Science_

_15:30 - Mechanics - Free - PE - Maths - PE_

_17:30 - End - End - End - End - End_

_Name: Naruto Namikaze_

_Homeroom: 315_

_Time - Monday - Tuesday - Wednesday - Thursday - Friday_

_08:30 - Homeroom - Music - English - Geography - Homeroom_

_09:45 - Catering - Science - Maths - Free - Science_

_11:00 - Maths - English - Science - Mechanics - Music_

_12:30 - Lunch - Lunch - Lunch - Lunch - Lunch_

_14:00 - Free - Free - Geography - Catering - English_

_15:30 - Mechanics - Free - PE - Maths - PE_

_17:30 - End - End - End - End - End_

"Look at that! We have PE, Mechanics, Music and Maths together. Oh, and look at Tuesday's times. I think I found my new favourite day. I'm going home then!" Naruto told Sasuke in glee. "Am I allowed to do that?" Sasuke nodded, making Naruto punch the air.

"We finish at 5:30 every other day, it's not a surprise seeing how high the school's expectations are. But I thought we would have more lessons on our optional subjects." Sasuke said, looking at his time table.

Sorting that out Naruto and Sasuke talked for the rest of home room. It was now five minutes before the end of the homeroom time and still the teacher didn't show.

Just then the door opened. A man with a mop of silver hair lazily strutted in. What caught Naruto's eye was the fact he was wearing a mask covering the lower half of his face.

"Sorry, I'm late." The man waved to the class. "My car broke down so I had to pull it here myself."

The class erupted with protests of "Liar!" The man only chuckled in a sheepish manner, rubbing the back of his head. He opened his eyes, seeing Naruto and Sasuke sitting in the back of the class. "Oh, so the two newbies are in my class. My name is Kakashi Hatake, I don't believe in that whole sir nonsense, so Kakashi-sensei is just fine."

The whole class turned to look at them, they were now only realising they were there. Murmurs began about them. Naruto shot up his hand. "I have a question."

"Go ahead."

"Why are you wearing a mask?"

The class seemed interested, everyone turning back around to face Kakashi.

"There's a flu epidemic going around. Don't want to catch it." Kakashi gave another smile to the class.

Naruto was perplexed, he had heard about the epidemic, but "Wasn't that five months ago-"

Naruto's voice was masked by the sound of a ringing bell. "Well, there's the bell. Get to class and remember to be good. Because if you are bad, then I get an earful. So do your favourite sensei a favour." Kakashi gave another smile as he pushed them off to their lessons.

Naruto and Sasuke stood outside the room. "Well, I've got catering which is this way. And you've got Art which is that way. So I'll see you in Maths later." Naruto spoken.

"Yeah." Sasuke replied. Giving Naruto a quick fist bump, before taking off in the opposite direction.

Naruto swivelled on his feet and faced the opposite way Sasuke left. Time for Catering. However' there was one small problem...

* * *

_'WHERE THE HELL IS THIS CATERING CLASS AT?'_ Naruto screamed in his own head. He had been up and down three flights of stairs, pretty sure he had gone in a complete circle around this corridor. Naruto was now running down the empty corridors, who knew how late he was.

Things started to heat up. _'Ovens?'_ Naruto grinned. Running through the heat. His prayers were answered, there it was. Heaven. The door was a plain white. "Catering" written on it. Naruto sped through the door. Interrupting the teacher halfway through her sentence. "Sorry, I'm late. I got seriously lost." Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, chuckling all the while.

"It's alright. My name is Ayame Ichiraku, the catering teacher." She was young, really young. A petite body frame and a round face framed with long brown hair. "Please take a seat."

Naruto nodded, picking the closest one to him. The teacher continued. "Well, you still have ingredients from when you last term. To get rid of your rustiness, today we will bake a simple cake. You may decorate it how you wish."

Naruto looked around nervously. "Er...Ayame-sensei. I don't have any ingredients. I'm sorta new."

Ayame gave a quick sigh. "Right well." She looked around. "Hinata, you always have plenty of ingredients, would you mind lending him some?"

The girl in question blushed like crazy, but nodded slowly.

"Great. Please work on the same counter as Hinata please." Ayame sounded very cheerful. She quickly let everyone get off to work. Naruto walked over to the lavender haired girl, who had already began weighing ingredients out for the both of them.

"Er..hi." Naruto spoke uneasy. "Thanks for letting me use some ingredients, I'll get you something in return."

The girl squeaked slightly. "It's alright." Her voice could barely be classed as a whisper.

"Sorry, my name's Naruto Namikaze. What's yours?" Naruto smiled at her, he would have weighed out his own ingredients, but this girl was already finishing off both sets.

"I am Hinata Hyuuga." She replied nervously. She handed Naruto all of his ingredients. Naruto sieved the flour and added the eggs, beating them furiously with the whisk.

"Hinata, that's a pretty name." Naruto smiled, she was really nervous. He wanted her to feel a little at ease.

Hinata turned to face him, she had seen him early today. His bright blond hair was noticeable a mile away and now that she was right next to him, she could see the depth of his bright ocean blue eyes. They were almost mesmerising. She couldn't look him in the face.

She smiled weakly in return. Naruto returned with a wide grin. It remained this way for the rest of the lesson, Naruto trying to get her to talk to him and Hinata barely squeaking anything out. She laughed a few times, especially at the point when he was in a rush to get the cake that he forgot the oven mitts. Grasping the cake pan with his bare head. Naruto jumped about two metres of the floor, before throwing his fingers in his mouth, sucking on them. Her laugh was quiet, but still audible, she made just the faintest sound. It was cute.

_'She's a nice girl.'_ Naruto commented in his mind. _'A little weird and a lot of shy. But nice.'_

* * *

Naruto sat with Sasuke at a table in the cafeteria. After cooking Maths was uneventful. Sasuke doing most of the work, not even giving Naruto a chance to answer the questions.

"So I was thinking-" Naruto was half through the sentence when a hand slammed onto their table. A boy with long black hair spiked upwards glared at them with a cocky grin, he was surrounded by about 6 cronies.

Sasuke noted how everyone else in the cafeteria had moved away from them, making a circle around them.

"You the new guys, right. The name's Zaku, and just to let you know, this is my school. So you just do what I say and we'll get along perfectly." The boy who slammed his hand down ordered them.

Naruto and Sasuke looked at him with raised brows. "Well, Zaku. I just don't care. So why don't you stay out of my way." Naruto spoke up against the boy, many people in the crowd gasped.

Naruto felt a hand wrap around his collar, pulling him up. "What did you say punk!" Zaku growled out, holding Naruto at eye level.

Sasuke stood up, gripping Zaku's wrist with his hand. Staring hard at Zaku. "Sit down queer!" Zaku barked out, looking hard at Sasuke.

"Hey Zaku." Zaku turned to face Naruto who called him. He received a strong headbutt to his nose, instantly he dropped Naruto and fell to the floor, holding his bloody nose in pain. "Don't insult my best friend."

Zaku's cronies instantly jumped in. Swing punches at Naruto and Sasuke. Both who fought back, despite being seriously outnumbered.

But the fought better, landing more blows and dodging more of theirs. The fight was compressed into a small circle, not much movement.

A shadow appeared above them, followed by a body landing on a few of Zaku's crew. White hair swung everywhere as he stood up. Suigetsu looked over to Naruto and Sasuke and gave them a wink complete with a wide grin, before turning and punching one of the staggering crew members in the face.

The cheers for the fight to continue intensified upon Suigetsu's arrival. Naruto and Sasuke smirked at him, turning back to beating the crap out of all Zaku's crew members.

* * *

Tsunade watched the fight escalate in the cafeteria from the balcony overhead. She saw Zaku grab Naruto by the collar first, so she knew who was to blame. But she didn't expect Naruto and Sasuke to fight back the way they did. Taking on Zaku's whole crew.

She watched Suigetsu's idiocy at full throttle. The boy was very popular for being a fierce friend. He was liked by the boys and girls alike. Suigetsu, using the table as a pedestal to stand above the crowd literally dived head first into the fight. Taking Sasuke and Naruto side, beating up the entire crew with them. The cheers for the fight to continue escalated upon Suigetsu's entry. No one made an attempt to stop it.

Tsunade shook her head, sighing heavily. "Oh, boy." She looked back up, the fight still going on. Teachers now moving towards and through the crowd to stop the fight. "What a year this is going to be."

* * *

**A/N:** Well, how was it? I'll admit it wasn't as good as some of the other konoha high fics in this site. And this was quite hard for me to write, but I want to broaden my creative horizons so to speak. And honestly, I'm not to good with the lovey dovey stuff, so if stuff doesn't sound lovey dovey, that's my fault.

Look up Chrysler ME 4-12 in google images, or whatever you got. It is one sexy car.

Er...that's about it really.

Rinne-Kami, Out!


	2. New Bonds

**A/N:** Yo! I've probably never updated as much as I have in these last few days before my Hiatus than I have in my entire time as a FF authour.

Well anyway onto this chapter. It was quite fun, friendship developing, yes. Character developing, yes. Pairing developing, no. But all in all a pretty fun chapter. I've been writing my plans for my next chapter of my FT/N crossover fic as well while I was writing this.

Well that's about it. See you in however long it takes for you to read this chapter.

* * *

Naruto, Sasuke and Suigetsu sat side by side. They snickering filling the waiting area of Tsunade's office. Their fight had been broken up by a total of six teachers. Everyone one of them being dragged to Tsunade's office. It was the funniest thing ever.

They could hear Tsunade's screaming voice from through the walls. Yelling consistently at Zaku and his crew, who were dragged into Tsunade's office before them. She wasn't giving them anytime to justify what happened or dig themselves out of a punishment.

Tsunade's screeching stopped. Zaku and his cronies exited through the door. Suigetsu and Naruto stared wide eyed at their bruised faces, failing to cover their mocking smiles on their faces. The crew walked passed the three in complete silence, some afraid to even look at them.-

"You three! Get in here now!" Tsunade ordered in rage. The smiles left their faces, they slowly entered Tsunade's office, gently closing the door behind them. Tsunade glared at all three of them with pure annoyance and anger.

"Do you know what you three did?" Her voice was quieter, but still just as harsh. She took out a piece of paper. "Two broken noses, four lost teeth, a cracked cheekbone and one very soiled pair of pants." Tsunade listed the medical reports. Suigetsu and Naruto couldn't help but snicker at the last one. Even Sasuke found it hard to keep a straight face.

"You think this is funny!" Tsunade's voice rose. "It is your first day. You haven't made an impression on any of the teachers to make them not want me to kick you two out right here and now." Naruto's eyes widened. "Oh don't you want that? I would think after today's performance that you were trying to get kicked out." Tsunade spoke in mock confusion.

She sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "And what about you, Suigetsu. I thought you would have learned this by now." Her voice was a lot calmer. She stared hard at the white haired boy, a slight amount of disappointment in her eyes. But something else as well, humour?

Before Suigetsu even had the chance to speak she continued. "You three are lucky. Because Zaku was the one to start the fight. Your injuries on the boys will be classed as self-defence, despite the fact you three have come out relatively unscathed. Zaku and his friends will receive a harsher punishment. You three shall receive an one hour detention after school on Friday. I know how you teenagers enjoy your Friday nights, so I'm ruining that for you."

_'We got off pretty easy.'_ Naruto looked over to Suigetsu and Sasuke in surprise, who were both thinking the same thing.

"Right. Get out." Tsunade flicked her head towards the door. Not wanting their 'severe' punishment to be extended any further.

_'But, how did she know they started the fight?'_ Suigetsu was wondering to himself.

"Oh, and Suigetsu." Tsunade called out to him. The three turned around to face her. "You entrance into the fight. It was mildly entertaining." A smirk became present on her face, before ordering them to get out again.

* * *

Naruto closed the door to Tsunade's office behind him. As soon as it shut the grin grew on his face, as did one of Suigetsu's as well. They both began chuckling, which developed into a full blown laughter.

"I can't actually believe you jumped in, thanks man!" Naruto exclaimed between bursts of laughter. "I mean, literally jumped in!"

Suigetsu's laughter died down to a giggle. "No problem. I've been wanting to clock Zaku on for a while now. So I should be thank you two for the opportunity."

Sasuke gave him a nod. Before checking his phone for the time. 13:55. "Naruto, I gotta go. I have Law. I'll see you later." Sasuke didn't wait for a goodbye. He began leaving immediately.

Naruto watched him leave. Before turning to Suigetsu. "So what have you gout next?" An easy way to keep a conversation going between students.

"I have a Free period." Suigetsu smiled proudly. "Then Mechanics last."

Naruto's eyes widened in astonishment. "So do I!" He exclaimed to Suigetsu.

"Really, well can I see the rest of you time table?" Suigetsu asked, holding out his hand for the time table.

"HEY!" They heard Tsunade shout from behind the closed door. "I thought I told you to get the hell away from my door!"

Naruto and Suigetsu's eyes widened, looking to each other, they quickly ran away before Tsunade's wrath was invoked.

They ran straight through the corridors. "Follow me." Suigetsu took over Naruto, Naruto followed Suigetsu around the corridors and out of the building. To the grounds of the school. The land the academy owned was vast. Tarmac grounds to run on that looked brand new. Basketball, Tennis and Netball boundary lines painted on is if they were yesterday. Lush green fields with neatly cut trimmed grass field the rest of his vision. Large hills in the background topped with forestry.

"Follow me. I want to show you something." Suigetsu began walking towards something that Naruto should have guessed. The highest hill in the area.

_'Just great.'_ Naruto mentally sighed, before he began trailing after Suigetsu up the hill.

* * *

"Not many come up here. They feel that this hill is too steep and too high to climb." Suigetsu chuckled, speaking to Naruto over his shoulder.

"I can't imagine why." Naruto wheezed out in return, unaware to Suigetsu Naruto was a few metres behind, dragging himself up the hill.

Suigetsu turned around, seeing Naruto near crawling his way up. He casually walked back and held out his hand. "We're almost there." He smiled.

Naruto wiped the sweat from his forehead. He grinned and grabbed Suigetsu's hand. Being hoisted back to his feet. Suigetsu helped him to the top of the hill. "Next time I'll get to the top by myself."

Suigetsu chuckled. "Good, because what you're about to see feels so much more better when you get up here by yourself."

They reached the top. Suigetsu let go of Naruto. "See." He waved his hand in front of the sight.

Naruto did see. The trees made a perfect circle around a body of water too large to be a pond, but to small to be a lake. The leaves of the trees broke the sunlight down, letting only a few rays hit the water. Creating small sparkling effects on the water's surface.

"Wow." Was all Naruto could manage to say. "How did you know this was here? I mean, how did you even find it?"

"I didn't." Suigetsu explained. "My brother did. He came to Rikudō high before me. My brother was a genius, excelling in everything he did. He found this spring on one of his free periods. He kept it too himself. He told me about it on the day he graduated."

"So what do you do up here." Naruto moved towards the water, placed his hand in it. It was so pure, so clear._ 'and really warm.'_

"I come up here to relax. The water is always really warm for some reason. Plus you're away from everything else." Suigetsu explained some more.

Naruto moved away from the spring. "So why did you tell me about this?"

Suigetsu shrugged his shoulders, before smiling. "Dunno. Just thought it would be nice to share with someone."

Suigetsu began walking out of the forestry, sitting on the edge of the hill. Naruto approached him, sitting down next to him. "This is incredible, man. Can I see your time table?"

Suigetsu seemed a little surprised at the question first, before he fiddled around in his pocket. Pulling out his time table.

_Time - Monday - Tuesday - Wednesday - Thursday - Friday_

_08:30 - Homeroom - Music - Maths - Science - Homeroom_

_09:45 - Maths - Travel - Science - Maths - English_

_11:00 - Biology - English - Free - Mechanics - Music_

_12:30 - Lunch - Lunch - Lunch - Lunch - Lunch_

_14:00 - Free - Biology - English - Free - Travel_

_15:30 - Mechanics - Science - PE - Free - PE_

_17:30 - End - End - End - End - End_

Naruto read over Suigetsu's schedule. "Cool, we have PE, Music, Mechanics and the free on Mondays together. But you have a lot more matching Sasuke's than mine."

"Really, what does he have?" Suigetsu looked over his own schedule.

"Well, he has Mechanics, PE and Music the same. But you share English and the free on Wednesday as well with him. Just so you know, Sasuke's a great guy, he just never speaks." Naruto informed Suigetsu, who only nodded over his shoulder.

"I never doubted that he isn't." Suigetsu replied, taking his time table back and putting it back in his pocket.

"So, who else knows about this place?" Naruto asked, looking back to the spring behind him.

"Only me. And now you, I'll show Sasuke it as well." Suigetsu answered it, looking down at the academy below them.

"Really? But aren't you really popular? I thought you would have told all your friends?" Naruto was quite confused, Suigetsu had just met Naruto and Sasuke. And he showed them this paradise before he showed his own friends.

Suigetsu sighed. "Because I don't want to many people to know about this. And also, sometimes I don't think their really my friends, it's like they only want to be seen with me. They never ask me about anything."

Naruto stared blankly at Suigetsu. He had to say what was on his mind. "I don't get it."

Suigetsu chuckled at his response. "I guess Sasuke's the brains of the operations, huh?"

"Hey!" Naruto shouted in response to the insult.

Suigetsu continued laughing. "So what are you guys doing for the winter holidays?"

"We just came back from a holiday. And you're already thinking about the next one?" Naruto laughed in return.

Suigetsu shrugged his shoulders with a guilty smile. "Who isn't, besides, you and Sasuke missed one hell of a Halloween party."

"You wanna talk about parties. I got a great story for you. So there me and Sasuke were, Sasuke was completely off his head, and these two girls had been eyeing him up the entire time, so naturally, I completely ruined his chances with the both of them. You see, what I did was..."

* * *

_'Yes! The final lesson of the day!'_ Naruto was ecstatic, this day had gone fast. But he really wanted to get home. He and Suigetsu had walked down from the hill and entered the car shop. Sasuke sat alone in the corner of the shop.

"Yo Sasuke, how was Law?" Naruto grinned at him.

"It was fine." Sasuke replied from over his shoulder.

Naruto nodded. "Hey Sasuke, Suigetsu's in our Mechanics, PE and Music class. And you share a free with him on Wednesday and English together as well."

Sasuke brow rose slightly. "Great."

Naruto sighed, shaking his head in disappointment. "You know you could show a bit more enthusiasm."

"Right, I'm off. My work station is over there." Suigetsu flashed them a quick smile and wave, before departing to his station.

The teacher soon entered, putting out a cigarette at a nearby ashtray. His blue hair was spiked upwards, with a full bull beard to match. "Yo. Name's Asuma Sarutobi. Your Mechanics teacher."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa." Naruto called out, gaining the attention of everyone in the class. "Sarutobi? Isn't that."

"That's right. The same last name as the person in charge of Konohagakure, the Hokage. Hiruzen Sarutobi. He's my dad." Asuma explained. Naruto had shut up, being completely astounded. "Right. Well, today all I want you to do is connect the car battery to the engine and jump start the car. Show me you can do that and you're done for the day and can go home."

"Really? Why?" Naruto called out again.

"Because it's the last lesson of the first day back. So I really can't be bothered to teach you anything today. Now get to work." Asuma ordered, he began leaving the shop, placing a new cigarette into his mouth.

Naruto and Sasuke looked at each other. Shrugging their shoulders, they began to work. Connecting the battery was easy.

"You know Sasuke. That Suigetsu's a pretty cool guy." Naruto began conversing as they worked.

"I'm sure he is." Sasuke replied quite bluntly.

Naruto looked up at him from the car. "What's your problem, man?"

Sasuke returned a look of confusion. "I haven't got one."

Naruto looked at him sceptically for a few moments, before continuing with the assignment. "Alright, but you're hanging out with him on Wednesday. So be nice. He's gonna be a good friend. I can feel it."

* * *

Naruto, Sasuke and Suigetsu left the workshop. It hadn't taken long to finish the work, so they were out early than everyone else.

"So Suigetsu, you want a lift?" Naruto grinned, pointing his thumb towards the car.

Before Suigetsu could answer, Sasuke quickly spoke. "No."

Naruto looked at Sasuke with a pissed expression. He was about to say something to Sasuke, before he was cut off by the very same person.

"It's a two-seater. So there's no room, unless you're suggesting I put you in the trunk or you're volunteering to walk." Naruto asked Naruto.

Suigetsu began laughing, holding up his hands. "It's alright. I got to get my own car home anyway. I'll see you guys tomorrow." He waved a quick goodbye to both of them. Sasuke giving him a nod goodbye and Naruto shouting see ya.

As soon as Suigetsu was out of sight, Naruto turned to Saasuke, a look of sheer annoyance written on his face. "You know you can be a real dick sometimes."

"I don't want to hear it." Sasuke told him, getting into the driver's seat of the Chrysler, rolling down the passenger window. Naruto still didn't get in the car. Looking through the open window at Sasuke.

"You know what your problem is Sasuke? You have social issues." Naruto informed him.

"Get in the car and shut up Naruto." Annoyance was growing in Sasuke's voice, he calmly put on a pair of sunglasses to deflect the light coming into the car.

Naruto continued on. "See right there. You lack the ability to talk to people."

"Last chance Naruto." Sasuke warned him.

"You'd rather just keep everyone at a distance from you."

Sasuke put his foot to the gas. Speeding off away from the ranting Naruto, driving out of the academy;s car park and down the open road.

Naruto watched the car leave in silent surprise. He took out his phone, scrolling down to Sasuke's name. He called him. The phone rang a few times, before Sasuke answered.

"What do you want, Naruto?" His voice was calm, but still cold.

"Hey Sasuke." Naruto spoke in a friendly voice. "You're coming back, right?"

There was no answer. Naruto listened, Sasuke hadn't hung up, he could hear the sound of the car driving effortlessly down the road.

"Right?"

* * *

**A/N: **Well, how was it? I'd give it a 6-7/10 in my honest opinion, it was fun, but I feel it could have been in more detail. I want to apologise for the shortness of the chapter while I'm at it. Compared to the 4000+ word chapter before it. this was pretty weak.

I'm quite a big fan of Suigetsu. So I want to give him a big role in the story, most people just have him as an ass or a bully. But not me. Sasuke doesn't have a problem, but we all know that person who just doesn't speak. I'm one of them, it's not because I think I'm too good to speak to people. I just don't know what to say. Sasuke's a bit like that.

Next chapter. Uuuhhh dunno. Do I really want to take this Hiatus? Expect a March release or a February release if I am persuaded to not take the Hiatus. But I'm working on my FT/N crossover fic, becausee...that's just renewed my will to write. And I havesome amazing ideas for it that must be wrote down.

Well, that's about it.

Til next time,

Rinne-Kami, Out!


	3. An Unexpected Friendship

**A/N:** Yo! Finally I got this up and... I didn't like it. It just didn't seem to flow well for me. But anywho, it's not for me to judge what you guys like, you've already begun reading so...

This chapter someone suggested that it was Hinata who picked up Naruto, I went with it, although there's a longer story involved. It's really hard to write NaruHina, I mean, in my PokeNaru fic, I'll admit there's been moments that could be classed as NaruSaku yes, and it was so much easier to write, but i don't want to write NaruSaku, so I'll deal with it.

Well that's about it, see you in however long it takes you to read the new chapter...

* * *

"I can't believe that guy!" Naruto shouted quickly to no one, Sasuke words on the phone ringing through his ears.

_'I'm not coming to get you Naruto, maybe this will teach you to keep your opinions to yourself.'_

Naruto growled in frustration, had had been walking for about 20 minutes now, and his house was another hour and a half from his current location. "It'll take me ages to get home!" He whined loudly. "Things can't get any worse!"

He looked up to the sky, blue crystal clear, barely a rain cloud in the sky. Naruto shrugged his shoulders and let out a hmph, beginning to step across the empty street. "Guess it doesn't rain everytime someone says that. This isn't so ba-"

Something fast and heavy connected to his left leg, a loud gasped of horror was all he heard, he rolled over the vehicle completely, crashing onto the road behind it.

Naruto felt woozy, he landed on his head hard. He could hear the tires screeching to a halt. The door of the car opened, his vision and hearing was failing, but he could distinctly hear the sound and see the sight of foot steps rushing towards him hurriedly.

_'Ow, my leg._' Naruto's thoughts went to the leg that received the impact. He couldn't lift his head to see the damage. His eyes began closing, shock from the impact causing his brain to shut down. Naruto promptly passed out, feeling a pair of hands go around his head just before unconsciousness took him.

* * *

"WHAT THE HELL?" Naruto suddenly jolted up, looking towards the person sat next to him, the same familiar indigo hair and pure white eyes, slightly gleaming with tears. "Hinata? What are you doing here?"

"W-W-Well, you weren't paying attention." She sounded close to sobbing. "Y-You just stepped out onto the road. I-I tried to stop."

Naruto's mouth went agape. "It was you who hit me?" He screamed, staring at Hinata with utter shock.

Tears began flowing from her eyes. "I'm so sorry, Naruto-kun!" She repeated over and over again.

Naruto couldn't bear to stay angry, he really couldn't handle girls crying. "It's alright. I'm fine." He spoke a lot quieter, patting her on the shoulder.

The girl sniffled, looking towards him. "Perhaps you need to go to the hospital?" She asked him softly.

"Nah, I'm fine. Something like this can't keep Naruto Namikaze down." He assured her, Naruto began standing up, as soon as he did, pain flew through his leg, making him tumble back down to the floor. "Ow!"

Hinata moved towards him, placing his arm over her shoulders. "You must go to the hospital." She spoke quite authoritatively, heaving him up and slowly making their was towards her car.

"Yes, ma'am." Naruto grumbled out, feeling completely useless as Hinata helped him into the passenger's seat, stopping her when she tried to put his seatbelt on for him. "That much I can do myself." He spoke quite sarcastically, pulling on the seatbelt hard, it locked in place, again he pulled, again it locked in place, refusing to move for him. A third time he pulled it, once again it locked in place.

Naruto moved back to lean back into the seat, a flush of red on his face as he held the seatbelt up to Hinata, who took it, and in one easy movement buckled him in.

Hinata moved to the other side, stepping into the driver's seat. "W-We will be there soon. Just sit tight." She sped off, driving down the road towards the Hospital.

* * *

"Well, Naruto." Dr. Yakushi entered the room, where Naruto sat patiently on the end of a bed, Hinata standing next to him worriedly. Dr. Yakushi had alarmed Naruto, he was very young, young than what Naruto thought I doctor could be, he pressed his glasses back up his nose before continuing. "The X-Rays are back, it appears that you leg has multiple fractures going down it, as well as heavy bruising of the bone, and there is no head trauma, so all in all, I'd say you okay." He smiled at Naruto, whose face lit up.

"Though I must say that you're extremely lucky to be walking away with such minimal injuries. From what it sounds like there should have been a lot more damage, but the car hit your leg first, yes? And then you rolled over it? Hinata, how fast were you going when you collided with Naruto?" He asked inquisitively, looking towards the girl.

"I-I'm not sure. I saw him step off the road, and I hit the brakes quite fast, so I wasn't going the speed limit when I hit Naruto-kun." Hinata explained timidly, unable to look Dr. Yakushi in the eyes.

"I see, then Naruto, you are very very lucky to be walking away with just that." Dr. Yakushi pointed to Naruto's leg.

"You mean I get to walk out of this hospital no problem!" Naruto laughed. "Thank. Dr. Yakushi!"

Said doctor chuckle quietly. "I didn't quite mean it like that." He smiled, before moving to bring in a pair of crutches. "I recommend that you stay off the leg for at least the rest of the week. Do not put any unnecessary stress on it, that means you probably should go to school for the rest of the week. Soak your leg in hot water a few times a day to soothe it and make sure its clean."

"But doc, I just started today!" Naruto whined. "Principal Tsunade will kill me! And then she'll kick me out the academy."

Dr. Yakushi's eyebrows rose in surprise. "So you go to Rikudō High. That's good. Tsunade-san used to be a doctor herself and still has all her medical certificates. Just ask someone to tell her that it was recommended by Kabuto Yakushi, she'll agree." He finished with a quick smile.

"You know her?" Naruto asked the man, who brushed his grey hair from his face.

"I do. She was my teacher in Med school, plus she's an old friend of the head of research and development here at the Hospital." Kabuto smiled, handing Naruto the crutches.

Naruto smiled in return, but wasn't fully convinced, taking the crutches, Dr. Yakushi and Hinata helped him make his way out of the Hospital into the car park, which put Naruto in his most current predicament.

* * *

"How the hell am I gonna get home?" Naruto screamed up into the heavens. Looking for some kind of answer.

"I'm so sorry for hitting you Naruto-kun." Hinata continued to apologise, tears still forming in her eyes.

"What are you crying for?" Naruto turned to her quickly. "Its not like I died or anything, I'll be fine, really." He assured her.

She looked like she was about to say something, before Naruto cut her off again. "It's alright Hinata. I'm not gonna hold it against you or anything, it was an accident." He smiled gently, patting her on the shoulder.

It seemed to comfort her, as she sniffled, wiping the tears from her eyes.

"Although..." Naruto dragged. "Now I could really use a ride home, there's no way I could hobble all the way on crutches..."

"I-I could give you a ride home." She spoke quite loudly towards him, startling him. "Its the least I could do." She returned to a more timid tone again.

"Great!" Naruto beamed. "I accept!"

* * *

"Take a left here." Naruto gave Hinata the directions. "You know, Hinata, you have a pretty nice car." He admired the internal detail.

"T-Thank you." She mumbled out, the faintest of blushes ever present on her cheeks.

"Could you tell Ayame-sensei that I'm sorry for not being able to attend her next lesson. I just got this vibe that she doesn't like me is all." Naruto asked the indigo haired girl. Before shivering. "Ugh...imagine what the teachers I haven't had yet are gonna think of me. Take another right here." He spoke depressed.

"I will." She mumbled out in return.

Naruto's face suddenly change from depressed to excited. "So, did I make a funny face when you hit me?" He asked randomly and loudly.

The girl just seemed to tremble under the question, making Naruto look at her weirdly. "You really should lighten up Hinata." He spoke quietly, staring at her intently.

"So what do you think of the school?" He finally asked after a few moments of silence.

"It's a very nice place. I like it there, and it provides a lot to be learned." Hinata replied timidly.

Naruto nodded. "So what did you take, you know, the optional choices?"

"I chose Catering, Art, PE, Music and Botany." She replied, surprisingly without her stutter.

"I'm not even gonna ask what Botany is?" Naruto instantly replied, looking like his head was hurting from the word.

Hinata gave off a light giggle, placing her hand over her mouth in an attempt to contain it.

This mad Naruto grin. "You see, you have such a nice smile and laugh, you ought to show them more! Rather than looking so dark and nervous all the time." Naruto replied quickly.

The ever present blush deepened, to covering half her face.

But Naruto was paying attention, now staring out to the road in front of them. "Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, you look pretty cute when you're all dark and timid as well."

Hinata's entire face went a deep red. _'He thinks...I look cute.'_

She could hear someone calling her, but she was too trapped in hear own thoughts to hear them.

"Hinata!" A pair of hands came across and grabbed the wheel, spinning it madly, she looked up, staring at Naruto in shock.

"You zoned out and crossed into the oncoming lane!" Naruto yelled at her. He exhaled deeply before looking forwards. "Oh! Stop here!" He shouted again, Hinata quickly hit the brakes, parking in the closest spot.

Naruto exhaled deeply, looking at her with wide eyes, before smiling, producing a very amused laugh. "Well... this has been fun." He smiled at her. Undoing his seatbelt and stepping out of the car.

His house was detached, surprisingly big. Hinata could see at least three floors. A man stepped out of the front door, clad only in a pair of boxers and a shirt. Long white hair tied back into a pony tail.

"Where the hell have you been these past few days?" He instantly greeted Naruto in a rage.

"I've been at Sasuke's I told you last Saturday!" Naruto shouted in an annoyed tone.

"Well I don't remember you telling me that! That means you're lying!" The man returned angrily, staring Naruto down.

"You probably got drunk off your head after I told you Jiraiya! That's why you don't remember!" Naruto returned, not willing to lose the argument.

The man finally stared down at Naruto's crutches. "What's with those?" He spoke a lot more quietly

"I got hit by a car." Naruto replied in an equally quiet tone.

Instantly the man, now identified to Hinata as Jiraiya burst out laughing in hysterics. "HAHAHA! That's a good one! So who was it? Did you find out who hit you?"

"Yeah I did." Naruto replied unimpressed. "She drove me home." He stepped out the way so Jiraiya could see Hinata. Jiraiya nodded a few times in an approving way.

Naruto suddenly felt Jiraiya's arm fling around his neck, pulling him closer. "She's pretty cute, you hitting that?" Jiraiya whispered out of Hinata's earshot.

"You're sickening." Naruto pushed him away in disgust. "You're way too old for that stuff, go feed some birds, will you old man." Naruto began making his way in side. "I'll see you later Hinata!" He called over his shoulder.

Hinata gave a small wave in return, he didn't turn around to see it. She saw that Jiraiya hadn't moved, only blinked a few times.

"Hey wait!" Jiraiya quickly yelled, following Naruto inside. "I do feed the birds, I feed them with-" He slammed the door shut, making the rest of the sentence inaudible to Hinata, Hinata made her way back into her car, preparing to drive away.

"THAT'S DISGUSTING!" She heard Naruto scream out, even from the distance she was and through a wall she could hear him clearly. "STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM ME!"

Hinata stared at the house in shock for a moment, before giggling, starting her car she drove down the street. '_Naruto-kun, you're a very nice person._'

* * *

**A/N:** Well, how was it? In my honest opinion I'd give it a 5/10. I feel like it was to short, to brief and not in enough detail, but I'm finding this story increasingly hard to write, at least at the moment.

Next chapter, March release, will have Naruto resting for the week, Sasuke will drop in and say hey and they will talk about a few things. By the time Naruto comes back the scholl will have changed dramatically. So please stay tuned for a few chapters, at least until I can pick things up.

Well, that's about it.

Til Next Time,

Rinne-Kami, Out!


	4. Guys Night

**A/N:** Yo! Well kicking off my new update regime is this! And honestly. Really fun to write, most of these chapters have been a bore or extremely hard to write, but this one just seemed to flow well, a great start for a new update plan!

Well, that's about it. See you in however long it takes for you to read the chapter...

* * *

"Yeah! Caught you, you silver haired prick!" Naruto screamed at his TV, he had done nothing of worth over his one week recovery period except complete game after game on his PS3. He was surprised that Tsunade had been so easy going about him having to take the week off despite just starting at the academy, it guessed it was either because of her experience as a doctor, or Jiraiya may actually have some skill when it comes to sweet talking women.

Naruto bite his tongue as he went through the action sequence, causing his character to cut the leg off his white glowing haired opponent, following another action sequence the other leg was quickly lopped off.

Naruto cringed at the sight, however the grin never left his face. "Ewhoo hoo hoo, nasty! Still, that doesn't top ripping off Helios' head with your bare hands! KRATOS KILLS ALL! Masterchief's got nothing on the Ghost of Sparta!" Naruto screamed at his TV screen.

"You really ought to calm down." He turned to see Sasuke walking through the door to his bedroom. "It's dark in here, have you even opened the curtains at all this week?"

"Nope." Naruto grinned. "You know Sasuke, you really made the mistake of getting an Xbox 360, now you can never experience the awesomeness that is Kratos."

"Of course I can. I can just play it round here." Sasuke dropped onto the gamer chair next to Naruto, hitting the recliner switch, causing his feet to rocket up into a relaxed position.

Naruto scoffed unbelievably. "Next joke." Naruto replied, pausing the game. "So how's school been?"

"Pretty boring, nothing eventful happening..." Sasuke dragged with a groan. "How's sitting on your ass for a weak been treating you?"

"Well it's been-Hey!" Naruto cut himself off. "I just realised, this is the first time you've visited me all week! It's your fault I'm like this in the first place, Mr-I'm-so-cool-riding-around-in-my-chrysler-like-a-boss!"

"Quiet down." Sasuke replied irritatedly, playing with his ear with his finger. "You'll be fine in a week, so what are you complaining about."

"I guess..." Naruto replied, although obviously still peeved about the whole situation, he had missed one whole week of introductions, now he was so far behind in all aspects of school life. "So come on, there must have been something that happened over the week. What about the classes?"

"Art's pretty interesting, and we're starting our body and paint project in mechanics, apparently the teacher's decided to work from the outside in, breaking the car down over the year. Apart from that, there alright." Sasuke answered uninterested.

"I see. So I shouldn't be too far behind then?" Sasuke nodded to Naruto's question. "So who have you actually been hanging around with over the past week."

"Suigetsu." Sasuke answered quickly. "He showed me that hill top spring, it was pretty cool, plus there's been his friends as well." Sasuke continued.

"What?" Naruto almost yelled. "You're the unsociable one out of us two, now I'm gonna look like some tag-a-long when I go back." Naruto whined, clutching his head in annoyance. "So what, now your best buddies with all of them now?"

"I wouldn't say that..." Sasuke replied, trailing off before telling Naruto the story.

_**-Flashback-Break-**_

Lunch time. Sasuke held the tray in his hand, sighing discontentedly, he scanned the large cafeteria for an empty table to sit at.

_'Naruto.'_ He gritted in his mind. _'Having a week off and leaving me to deal with this new school. It's his fault I'm here in the first place.'_

Looking around, he found what could be describe as the table off his dreams. Small, fitting only four people on, as opposed to the larger tables holding up to twelve students. It was at the back of the cafeteria but not in the corner, so he wouldn't look like a complete loner. And most importantly, it was currently vacated.

He began making his way towards it, almost pushing through the other students, he would get there first.

"Sasuke!" Someone called out to him, his eyes darted to the direction of the voice momentarily, Suigetsu beckoned him from across the lunch room, waving madly at him. He chose to ignore it, he had found the table at which he wanted to sit.

"Hey Sasuke." Suddenly Suigetsu was next to him. "I guess you didn't hear me calling you. Come, you can sit with me."

Sasuke grumbled in the most unenthusiastic agreement, looking back to his table one last time, a small piece of him died.

Suigetsu weaved through the crowd with him, slumping him down on a six man table. Suigetsu moved to the only empty seat on the table, placing himself on it. "Guys, this is Sasuke Uchiha. Sasuke these are my friends, Shikamaru Nara, Choji Akimichi, Kiba Inuzuka and Sai Edakumi."

Sasuke glanced around the table. Nodding at Shikamaru, the black haired boy that had his hair tied back into a spiky ponytail. A plain white shirt similar to his own, but had long sleeves that were rolled up. His face expressed total boredom, nearly falling asleep. He had known Shikamaru from his Law class, after the teacher screeched at him for falling asleep and demanded the answer to the question, Shikamaru lazily went into full detail about the hierarchy of the court. Speaking of things even Sasuke had no idea about.

Looking over to person sat next to Shikamaru, it was a chubby boy with brown hair, long brown hair. He munched happily through his lunch, looking over to Shikamaru pleadingly, with a heavy sigh Shikamaru pushed his tray along to him, the boy began devouring the food instantly, while Shikamaru used the new space to rest his head.

On his side of the table, the one sitting furthest away had short brown hair in a style similar to Naruto's, he himself wolfed down the food in front of him, but stopped to give Sasuke a small courteous nod upon the mention of his name.

Finally sat next to him was a paled skin boy, with straight black hair. He stared impassively at his food, almost just playing with it. Unlike everyone else who wore a white shirt casually, this one wore a black shirt like blazer, with double breasted buttons down the front and long sleeves.

"Hey." Sasuke mumbled to the group, all giving their own mumbles in return. And thus Sasuke sat through lunch hearing the mumbles of conversation between the other boys, Suigetsu attempting to bring Sasuke into the conversation a few times. But Sasuke had nothing of value to add to the conversation.

_**-Flashback-Break-**_

"Lucky. Look at me, I'm gonna be the guy who had a week off school when I just started." Naruto whined. "And you can already fit in." He whined even further.

Naruto calmed considerably, a sly grin growing on his face. "So tell me Sasuke, with a week without my awe inspiring presence. Any girls there that interest you?"

Sasuke sighed, reaching into his trouser pocket, he scattered fifteen small crumples of paper across the floor, each one with a name, phone number and a X mark on them.

Naruto stared at the little pieces of paper, his lower lip jutting out, bobbing his head up and down slightly. "I'm impressed." Naruto smacked his lips together, before looking towards Sasuke.

"That's not all." Sasuke sighed again, standing back up to move to his bag that he had discarded by Naruto's room, he pulled out a bunch of cards and passed them over to Naruto.

Naruto opened each one, reading their contents aloud to Sasuke. "Dear Naruto, get well soon, from Kitomi x. Dear Naruto, sorry to hear about your injury, hope you get well soon, love Izumi xXx. Dear Naruto, love Mizanami xXxX. Dear Naruto, Dear Naruto, Dear Naruto." He sounded almost uninterested, but he couldn't find it. "Wow, I can't believe I got so popular so fast, they must have digged my blond hair, blue eyes and ravishingly good looks combo." He looked over to Sasuke, who returned his grin with an impassive face.

"No. That can't be it." Sasuke returned bored.

"Hey!" Naruto screamed with insult.

"Shut up, dobe. You'll make me deaf." Sasuke whined. "Don't take this the wrong way, but I overheard a couple of them as I was leaving, they told their friends they were only sending you a card so they would look better in my eyes. You know what looks good in my eyes, when people can whisper correctly."

"Yeah, I know. That's how it usually works, but still, I'm surprised I didn't get one this time, it actually feels a bit weird." Naruto admitted, flicking through the last few cards, suddenly his face lit up. "Here it is!" He waved the card in front of Sasuke victoriously.

"What is it?" Sasuke asked Naruto with a furrowed brow, almost about to snatch the card from his hands.

"Remember when we were playing soccer against Bleach High and that bastard Ichigo took me out and broke my shin. A girl sent me a get well soon card with her phone number in it, and a little message underneath asking me to make sure her number got to you." Naruto recalled, though Sasuke looked like he couldn't remember it. "Okay, what about the time we were playing Basketball against The OP Academy team last year and I broke my arm in two places. That orange haired cheerleader told the nurses at the hospital me and her were old friends simply so she could come and flirt with you in my hospital room."

"Surely that can't be another one of those. Beside, I don't even know what you're talking about." Sasuke was on the defensive.

Naruto cleared his throat, opening the card. "Naruto. Hope you get better. From Maiko, PS. Does Sasuke have a girlfriend, if he does, how does he feel about group?" Naruto's eyebrow rose, looking over to Sasuke with a victorious smug look. "So come on Sasuke, their must have been some girls there that actually approached you for longer than the time it took to hand you their number?"

_**-Flashback-Break-**_

Sasuke walked towards his car, it was finally the end of Thursday. The week had been pretty uneventful in terms of studying, the teachers making sure that all the students were comfortable and relaxed in their classrooms, but now the day was over.

"Excuse me." A dainty finger tapped him on the shoulder, turning around he found two girls standing in front of him. One had long platinum blond hair, a long bang covering her right eye, the rest pulled back into a high ponytail. She wore a simple white shirt like everyone else, the top button undone, and a black skirt, which allowed for a lot of leg room as it's folded design made looser at the edges and stockings pulled up to her mid thigh. The girl next to her had the brightest shade of pink hair, emerald eyes going with it. She wore a similar uniform to the blond girl, she looked less enthusiastic than the blond, a faint red on her cheeks and an inability to look at him for long. "Are you Sasuke Uchiha?"

"Yes." Sasuke replied bluntly. "Although it is common courtesy to give your own name before asking for another's."

"Sorry." The blond beamed, obviously not put off by Sasuke's attitude. "My name is Ino Yamanaka and this is my friend Sakura Haruno."

Sasuke gave a nod to the both of them. "So Ino, Sakura, what can I do for you?"

Suddenly a faint blush grew on the formerly confident blond. "Well, I've seen you talking to Suigetsu Hozuki over the past couple of days. I was just wondering how you knew him?"

"He was instructed by the Principal to show myself and Naruto around Rikudō High." Sasuke answered uninterestedly.

"Oh, well could you tell him I say hi." Ino smiled weakly at him. Sasuke nodded in understanding at her.

"Suigetsu!" Ino's eyes widened in horror as Sasuke's voice called out.

"What?" Her eyes widened even further when the voice replied, whipping around she saw Suigetsu from a distance looking at them.

"Ino Yamanaka says hi!" Sasuke called out again, pointing to the blond girl sweating bullets. Looking around for someone she could pass off as herself.

"Oh. Hey Ino!" Suigetsu flashed his teeth, waving madly at her before carrying on his way.

"That wasn't funny!" Ino whipped back to Sasuke, pouting her lower lip angrily looking at him.

Sasuke shrugged his shoulders. "I thought it was. Everyone around us thought it was. Even your friend thought it was." Sasuke's head nodded in Sakura's direction. Ino turned to her, true to Sasuke's word, a hand covered Sakura's mouth in an attempt to stifle a giggle. She turned back to Sasuke who was smiling confidently at her.

Sasuke turned himself now, heading towards his car, he lazily rose his hand over his shoulder, giving them a small two fingered salute. "It was nice meeting you, Ino Yamanaka, Sakura Haruno."

_**-Flashback-Break-**_

"Well I'll be damned." A sly grin on Naruto's face grew. "Sasuke Uchiha, the s-layer of girls across the country had a girl speak to him in order to get closer to another guy. Some go give Suigetsu a medal." Naruto laughed hard, clutching his stomach in his laughing fit.

"That's not what happened!" Sasuke to the defensive once again.

"Look who you're talking to!" Naruto pointed to himself during his laughing fit. "If anyone's gonna notice that happening, it's me!" Naruto laughed louder at the look of realisation upon Sasuke's face.

Naruto sighed in content, wiping a tear from his eyes. "Anyway, what are we gonna do about Winter break?"

"But we've just started Naruto." Sasuke pointed out, slightly annoyed.

"I know. But Suigetsu brought it up, and I've been wondering what we should do for it." Naruto replied.

"Well, Itachi might be in town around then, so I don't want to go away when he will be back." Sasuke replied. Nodding Naruto turned switched the TV input, loading up the internet through his TV.

"What are you doing?" Sasuke asked, noticing Naruto hobble out of his seat and hook in a webcam into his PS3.

"Itachi always comes on Video chat around this time on Friday's I'll just ask him when he's back in town." Naruto replied, dropping back into his seat he turned and jumped out of his skin, Sasuke scaring murderously at him.

"You speak to Itachi? Why didn't you tell me?" Sasuke shouted very much out of character.

Naruto's lower lip jutted out, shrugging lazily. "You never asked." He replied, turning back to see his TV, sure enough Itachi, and another hundred people were all on chat, clicking Itachi's name a screen opened, revealing Itachi sitting there, staring at his computer screen.

"Hey Itachi!" Naruto greeted him, waving at his computer screen.

"_Yo, Naruto._" Itachi smiled back, noticing Sasuke. "_And Sasuke's there too._"

"Hey Itachi." Sasuke grumbled out, Itachi had told him he was too busy to talk numerous times.

"Say, Itachi. When is your art group coming to town?" Naruto asked immediately.

"_Er... hold on._" Itachi spoke, before turning to face the other way. "_Sasori, when are we going to be back in Konoha on tour?_"

A mumble was heard in reply, before Itachi nodded, returning to face the screen. "_Around February. Why, you guys want tickets?_"

"That would be great, we didn't know when you be back in town and we didn't want to go away on holiday for Winter Break if that's when you came back." Naruto replied enthusiastically.

"_Well don't worry about it. We're actually really booked out. Apparently we're quite popular, you guys might not be able to get tickets anyway."_ Itachi mused, tapping his chin intellectually.

"So what exactly are you guys doing, I mean touring art? What exactly is that?" Naruto asked, he had never fully understood what it was Itachi gave up everything for.

"_Well, our group's called Akatsuki. We travel around the world, renting museums for people to come check out our art exhibits and allow local artists to get their work out there as well. Each one of us has different style of art, I myself draw artistic optical illusions and paintings, and Sasori has a puppet display, he makes puppets by hand and performs plays with them, he actually gets quite a lot of viewers, as he writes the scripts for his puppet plays as well. A lot of our art gets sold at the end of each exhibit, so we're constantly busy making new ones. Get this, a movie producer bought one of Sasori's scripts last month, he says he wants to make a movie out of it._" Itachi explained, he enjoyed doing what he did, it was peaceful and gave him a lot of freedom.

"_So Sasuke, how's school?_" Itachi asked, smiling at his younger brother.

"Naruto and I got kicked out of VOTE Academy last term. Now we got to Rikudō High." Sasuke explained. Quite uninterested in the subject.

"_You did?_" Itachi sounded surprised. "_Good. I never enjoyed it there anyway, besides I here Rikudō High gets much better marks and is a better school all together. The guy and his friends who created Akatsuki went there._"

"Really? Who are there?" Naruto asked, quite interested in that piece of information.

"_There name's are Yahiko, Nagato and Konan. Seriously? You don't know who they are, they told me they had built an enormous memorabilia of themselves to forever watch over the school or something?_" Itachi scratched his head in a thoughtful manner.

"There's no giant statue of anyone there accept the guy who founded the school, Chibaku Tensei or whatever his name is?" Naruto looked over to Sasuke for the answer, who did not have it.

Itachi himself shrugged. _"So how are you, Sasuke?"_ Itachi asked.

"I'm good." Sasuke replied honestly, he couldn't really go into detail. Because that's just how he felt. Good.

Itachi nodded appreciatively, at least his question was answered. "_And mom?"_

"She's been good." Sasuke replied again. "Although she wishes you call more, and she may not show it, but she really misses you."

Itachi nodded, a bit saddened. "_And what about him?_" Sasuke dreaded the question, he remembered Itachi visiting last year, his father and Itachi erupted into a heated argument halfway through dinner, Itachi chose to stay at a hotel for the rest of the night, and Sasuke had seen him again until now.

"I don't know," Sasuke admitted honestly for two reasons, one, he could never tell what his father was thinking, two. "Father's away on business a lot, he has rarely been home for the past year."

"_I see..._" Itachi gritted through his teeth.

Suddenly two hands draped themselves around Itachi's neck, long blond hair appeared on Itachi's shoulder, covering the face from view. _"Come back to bed, Itachi."_ The person spoke suggestively, with a slight giggle to their voice.

"Itachi you dog!" Naruto's face widened in glee. "So who's the chick?"

"_CHICK!"_ The head shot up, revealing a more masculine face and voice. _"I was just joking around, yeah! But you had to take it too far! Call me chick again and I'll beat you up so bad you're insides will explode!"_ The guy screamed in fury, tying a good amount of his blond hair back into a ponytail, leaving a long bang to drape over his left eye and more to fall around the dies of his head.

"Naruto, he's not a girl. He's just weird." Sasuke explained.

"_Hey, hey!"_ The blond man blew a gasket, screaming, ignoring Itachi rubbing his ear sorely as the blond screamed right next to it. "_When did the squirt suddenly get big enough to talk back to me, yeah?"_

"Sasuke." Naruto whispered as the other blond continued to scream at the screen. "Who is this guy?"

"His name is Deidara. He went to school with my brother." Sasuke gave a brief introduction.

"_I can hear you, hn!"_ Both jolted at Deidara's voice. _"Yeah, I went to school with Itachi, and I'm also a member of Akatsuki, yeah! Wait a minute, you tell them, Itachi, yeah!"_ Deidara looked towards Itachi, who sighed.

"Deidara is our sculptor, he makes thousands of clay sculptures of different sizes." Itachi sighed wearily.

"_Oh no you don't, yeah!"_ Deidara screamed again. "_Tell them the best part!"_

Itachi sighed again, rolling his eyes. "Deidara currently has the most popular exhibit with the tour and in Akatsuki." Itachi looked over to Deidara, whose face still demanded more. "And he's held the title for 2 years."

"_YEAH!" _Deidara cheered, turning to look away from the screen. _"So take that Sasori! You dick!"_ He ran off the screen, a clutter and a bang was heard, Itachi shaking his head in disappointment.

"As Deidara creates his sculptures he adds tiny explosives to them, and he detonates them at the end of each exhibit. That's why he is so popular, people like seeing things go boom." Itachi explained.

"But why does he do that?" Naruto explained, why does he do go through all that hard work just to blow it up.

"_Because beauty is fleeting, hn._" Deidara sat back down next to Itachi, rubbing a red mark on his face sorely. "_This,_" He pointed to himself. "_And this,_" He slapped Itachi gently on the cheek a few times. "_This will age, and wither, and rot and die. True beauty, true art. Now that lasts for a second, killed while it is still young. So it doesn't have to face the disgusting process that is lasting forever._"

"So what are you gonna do when you age?" Naruto asked.

"_Well by the time that's happened I won't be beautiful anymore. So I can survive the process, besides I created these pieces of art. So I never want to see them face ageing._" Deidara explained with a cocky smirk, before tilting his head curiously. "_You know what I realized, Itachi, hn._" He pointed to both Sasuke and Naruto. "_The blond hair-blue eyes/Black hair-Onyx eyes combination passes through the generations._"

Naruto and Sasuke looked to each other with a similar facial expression to Deidara.

"_Well, it's getting quite late over here. And we have some big fancy event we have to prepare for. So I'll see you later, Sasuke, Naruto."_ Itachi gave a quick wave, Naruto and Sasuke waved back and Itachi logged out. The screen turning off.

"Well there you go. So what do you think, snowboarding? The mountains are really close." Naruto suggested, turning to Sasuke, who still looked as if he was contemplating something.

"Er, yeah, Snowboarding, sounds good." Sasuke mumbled in agreement._ 'I might do me some good, clear my head.'_

"Great, but we definitely have to invite Suigetsu. He's been really cool to us!" Naruto demanded.

"Invite whoever you want." Sasuke mumbled out again, still with a contemplative look to his face.

"Well we'll see how many more friends I make over the term." Naruto grew a sly grin across his face.

"Fine, but not too many people. And they have to pay for their own cabins and transportation, you're way to sociable." Sasuke sighed out. A smirk across his face, Naruto himself grew a smile, before both began laughing loudly.

They continued talking, gaming and generally catching up with each other long into the night. Soon it was close to midnight. "Wow, it's pretty late." Naruto gave off a whistle. "Well, Sasuke, you wanna crash? Jiraiya took off on his book tour thing."

"Nah, I promised my mom I'd go shopping with her." Sasuke sighed, standing up he clicked the bones in his shoulders. "I'll see you later, Naruto." He gave a small nod, before walking to the door.

"Alright, see ya Sasuke." Naruto smiled in return, giving a short wave.

Sasuke picked up his messenger bag, slinging it over his shoulder as he opened the door, he stopped just before he left the room. "Naruto." He called from over his shoulder, he doubted he could lie to Naruto forever. "About before, when you asked if there are any girls who interest me. I lied, there is one. She's in my Art class."

"I knew it!" Naruto hopped to face Sasuke, who also turned back to face Naruto. "The tin man Sasuke finds his heart for the 44'000th time!" Naruto exaggerated. "Whose the unlucky girl this time? They always get their heartbroken by the end of it after all."

Sasuke's eyes met with Naruto's cheerful ones. "Her name's Hinata Hyuuga."

* * *

**A/N: **Well, how was it? Review please. I know I've been an ass before, so along with this new regime, I'm also starting to reply to every review given to me starting now. You guys took the time to review and give me your opinion, you deserve the courtesy, nay the respect of having a reply to it. So I apologise to all whose reviews I did not answer.

Now I really put females in a bad light in this chapter, or at least it felt like I did. I don't mean it in a bad way, it's just that everyone uses other people in some way or form, guys are just as assholes at doing stuff like that. So I wish people would stop complaing that "Guys are shallow jerks" and "Girls are manipulative bitches!" cause yes! yes there are, it's life, faulty personality traits of those individuals not the gender as a whole, not all people are like that, so build a bridge and get over it.

Anyway, sorry about that. This IS A NaruHina, SasuSaku fic, but that doesn't mean I have to start with that pairing, depending on the responses for this chapter will influence how this develops, I have two storylines to go down. But I won't spoil.

Next chapter. I've got a lot of time seeing as I've got a new update regime. So I may update a second chapter this month, after that I won't update this in may as it's not it's scheduled update time, although I may take time to plan out a good five chapters ahead for each of my stories.

Til Next Time,

Rinne-Kami, Out!


	5. Promises

Surprise was the only thing that was plastered across Naruto's face, his eyebrows had risen up in utter shock. "Hinata? She's the girl?" He asked incredulously.

"You know her?" Sasuke responded, with slight surprise that Naruto knew the girl.

"Yeah, she's in my catering class. She's also the one that hit me with her car." Naruto responded, a little uneasy about the situation now.

Especially as a smirk grew across Sasuke's face. "Hmph, I like her even more already." He said with a quiet, yet mocking chuckle.

"Shut up Sasuke. Hinata's really cool. She helped me out so much. When she hit me she never left my side, she helped me get to the hospital and stayed with me the entire time. In all honesty, I never imagined she would be the type of girl for you. How did you meet her?" Naruto asked, he was worried. He didn't like Hinata in that way, but he did like her. She was really nice and could be a really good friend.

Sasuke sighed out loud before starting his story. "It was on Monday, she is in the same Art class as me. That's where I met her..."

_**-flashback-break-**_

Sasuke sat at the back of the Art Class, each person worked in silence, working on their own paintings. Sasuke liked his seat, it was out of the way, not the centre of attention as he preferred, yet with Naruto as a best friend, it was something he could never achieve.

His picture was a large one, depicting a large valley with a waterfall down the middle. At each side of the waterfall their was a statue of two separate men, looking as if they were engaged in an eternal battle. The valley itself did not look natural, it appeared as if they valley was torn into the earth by means of destruction and battle. Sasuke spent time detailing the image before shading and colouring it in.

"That is very impressive, Sasuke." His teacher stood behind him, staring at the picture. Her name was Kurenai Yuuhi, one one with long curly black hair and unusual eyes, her eyes were red with another ring in the iris. "What is the context for this picture?" She asked with interest.

"It is meant to be a representation of the eternal struggle between good and evil, light and darkness. The statue on the left of the waterfall represents evil, whilst the statue on the right represents good. It is meant to show how these two opposing factors are so close, yet so far away at the same time. And the valley is meant to show their destructive affect on Earth." Sasuke explained, stopping his work in order to explain it better without distraction.

"Incredible..." Kurenai responded, obviously impressed by the tone of her voice. "With a little work Sasuke, you could become the second best in the class."

Sasuke locked eyes with the woman, glaring at her as if she had just insulted him greatly. "In fact, I'm going to move you next to the to one of the best in the class, she is sat over there." Kurenai smiled, point to the direction behind him.

Sasuke turned, and saw a girl with long blue hair, reaching her mid back. Her eyes were a pale, yet gleaming lavender. She wore the standard uniform for girls at Rikudō High, she sat concentrating on the canvass in front of her. Kurenai ushered him over quickly, Sasuke barely had time to collect his equipment as the woman gently nudged him over.

Sasuke eventually walked over to the girl with a small scowl on his face. She quickly met his gaze, staring at him rather timidly, filled with confusion. "Kurenai moved me to come sit next to you, she said you were the best in the class."

The girl shook her head barely. "N-No, I am not the best in the class. S-Sai-kun is the best artist in the class, p-perhaps the entire school." She replied weakly, continuing with her own drawing.

"Sai?" Sasuke's eyebrow rose with surprise at the knowledge of the boy he had met earlier. "I'm Sasuke Uchiha by the way." He introduced himself as he sat down at the free chair next to her, placing his picture back on the stand to continue drawing.

"H-Hello, Sasuke-kun, I am Hinata Hyuuga." She responded, not taking her eyes off her work as she drew.

As Sasuke sat next to her, he discovered that she expressed no interest in talking to him. He himself had made small attempts to strike up conversation with the girl, and she would replied faintly. Her words leaving no opening to continue conversation. Sasuke looked over to see what she was drawing, to see what she was focusing so intently on.

It was magnificent. Simple, yet elegant. A stark yellow background, with various shades of yellow. On the front were lavender and purple swirls of paint, mixing into the background and bringing the yellow out, the two colours blending perfectly together...

_**-flashback end-break-**_

The sound of Naruto's laughing brought Sasuke out of his memories, his laugh was loud, almost mocking to the raven haired boy. "You like a girl who doesn't like you back!" Naruto laughed, almost falling off his chair in laughter. "This could be the first time that this has ever happened."

He continued laughing for a few more seconds, before it died down with a deep exhale. Breathing heavily once more, Naruto began speaking again. "Nonetheless, Sasuke, I would ask that you don't try anything with Hinata. She's really cool and she could be a great friend to both of those, something that would be ruined if you broke up with her." Naruto locked his blue eyes with Sasuke's onyx ones, it was one of the few times when Naruto would speak to Sasuke like this. "Or, at the very least, if you must go for it, just promise me you won't hurt her."

"She won't be hurt, Naruto." Sasuke responded blankly, as he always did. Sasuke's tone was forever laced with indifference. "So with your one week off, what have you done? Anything constructive, or have you just be play God of War religiously?" He added after a few seconds had passed.

"Actually, I've been working on our song." Naruto beamed with satisfaction with himself for his work. "I've mastered your drum work, done all the programming, edited the vocal work and finally managed to add the guitar work Gaara had done." Naruto beamed widely. "Although it still needs a hell of a lot of work still. I'll show you it on Tuesday, we have first period together in Music."

Sasuke nodded in return. "Cool, I have to go. But I'll see you Monday." He spoke, leaving as he intended to do a few minutes ago. Naruto waved him goodbye. "Oh, and Naruto..." Sasuke suddenly added, Naruto turned to face his best friend again. Sasuke had not done the same, leaving Naruto to stare at his back. "...I'm glad you're okay..."

* * *

"Alright class, welcome to your third music lesson back. You know your projects, remember that they are due in on Friday. Now hop to work, get into your groups." Naruto's music teacher, Arashi Fuuma spoke with a cheery smile on his face, clapping his hands together signalling the class to begin. "Naruto, may I speak to you for a moment." He then looked directly at the blond.

Naruto nodded with a smile, and limped over to the man, luckily he had no need for crutches anymore, or at least, from his point of view he didn't. Tsunade was an old friend of his guardian, Jiraiya. Naruto had known the woman his entire life, but he never listened to her medical advise, or any doctors for that matter. He would do things his own way, as he had always done.

"I was informed of your absence last week by Principal Tsunade. Don't worry, it's perfectly understandable and you didn't miss much." Arashi-sensei, spoke with a warm smile on his face, putting Naruto at ease a little bit. "I had only informed the class of this week's project and for each member of the class to display whatever musical talents they possessed. Now you may be behind, but I think you can catch up pretty easily. There was one group last week that was a man down, luckily it also has two of the best students in it, Suigetsu Hozuki and Shikamaru Nara, I believe your friend Sasuke is in that group as well. Feel free to work with them." Arashi-sensei finished with yet another smile.

And Naruto beamed in return. _'What a nice guy!_' He thought of his new music teacher, he bore no grudge against Naruto for missing the first two lessons AND paired him with two of his friends. "Absolutely, Arashi-sensei! Actually, there was something I wanted to ask you." Naruto admitted, before fiddling through his pocket before he pulled out a disc in a case. "Me and Sasuke have been working on music in our spare time with a friend, would we be able to use this as our project, it still needs some finishing touches and other things added though."

Arashi-sensei looked at the CD with a pleased surprise look to his face. "Amazing, here I thought you were two lessons behind and you're actually ahead of the group by having recorded music, feel free to use it for your project!" Arashi-sensei beamed widely as he let Naruto go to his group. "I think you'll get along superbly in this lesson, Naruto. Now go to your group and show them your work."

Naruto grinned in return, before quickly limping over to his group. "Wassup guys? Guess whose your new group mate?" He chuckled as he approached him, instantly he was met with a smirk from Sasuke and a grin from Suigetsu, who met him with a slap to the hand, them two grasping each other's hands as they connected. However, their third group member did nothing.

"Oh, Naruto, this is Shikamaru Nara. Shikamaru, this is Naruto Namikaze." Suigetsu smirked as he introduced the two to each other. Shikamaru gave a nod towards Naruto, who did the same in return.

"So what you guys doing?" Naruto asked as he pulled up a chair and sat amongst the other three.

"Just trying to decide what we should do for our project." Suigetsu returned, they had been having problems deciding. Well he had been having problems deciding, Shikamaru was fine to go with whatever, and Sasuke rejected every idea he came up with.

"Well I was speaking to Arashi-sensei, and he said we could use this!" Naruto beamed, flashing the disc to the other three. It's something me, Sasuke, and our friend Gaara have been working on. Although it still needs to be finished." Naruto smiled widely.

"Sweet, that means we're half done already!" Suigetsu grinned, looking at the disc.

"Saves me having to put more effort in, thanks blondie." Shikamaru smirked, closing on eye as he looked at Naruto.

"Here I'll show it to you..." Naruto spoke, moving closer to the computer to put the disc in. "Now remember it's an unfinished piece, there is still edits to be done, as well as other instruments. I did the singing and the programming and synth, Sasuke did the drums and the back up vocals, and our buddy Gaara did the guitar. But we need to add a second guitar and bass." Naruto explained, loading up the media file.

The computer had been designed for multiple headphones to be plugged in. Each had plugged one in and stuck it in their ears.

It began with a with a serene sound, before the drums kicked in. Creating a steady beat until it died down for the vocals to begin.

_I wonder, can you daydream at night?_  
_Lying awake, I've had too much time._  
_I'm watching picture shows in the shadows_  
_Dance for the crowd tonight._  
_Imagination is such a vivid place to hide,_  
_While stars watch over you._

_Through silent homes_  
_The lights are out but I walk these halls,_  
_The way I've walked before,_  
_Sleeping, with saints and apparitions between the walls._  
_The lights are out but I walk these halls,_  
_I promised not to wake you, so I'll walk light, just so you can hear,_

_The rats in the roof and termites in the ceiling._  
_We'll hear everything except what we need to hear._  
_Sleeplessness is for the restless, and I'm just fine,_  
_Left to wander, aimless in unconsciousness._

_There's spiders crawling from the corners of my eyes._  
_Let them weave their little webs to snatch the sunlight from the lens._  
_I'm staring at the ceiling 'cause I'm fed up with the sight._  
_Weigh my eyelids back to sleep, sealed by silken silver threads,_  
_While stars watch over you._

_Through silent homes_  
_The lights are out but I walk these halls,_  
_The way I've walked before,_  
_Sleeping, with saints and apparitions between the walls._  
_The lights are out but I walk these halls._  
_Cast the sheep out of your mind,_  
_Count the wolves and we'll sleep tonight._

_I stumble in and I stumble out of unfamiliar rooms in foreign houses,_  
_But I'm at home, a ghost that has left behind his sheets,_  
_Unrequited, until I wake up somewhere I know that I've never been._

_I'll stay 'til sleep takes over you.  
I'll stay 'til sleep takes over you._  
_And I'll walk while stars watch over you._  
_ And I'll walk while stars watch over you._

_Through silent homes_  
_The lights are out but I walk these halls,_  
_The way I've walked before,_  
_Sleeping, with saints and apparitions between the walls._  
_The lights are out but I walk these halls,_  
_The way I've walked before,_  
_Sleeping, with saints and apparitions between the walls._  
_The lights are out but I walk these halls._  
_Cast the sheep out of your mind,_  
_Count the wolves and we'll sleep tonight_

The song in progress ended, and each of them removed their headphones. "That was amazing, man..." Suigetsu spoke out quietly in awe.

"Thanks, but it still needs a lot to it. And quite frankly. I don't like the part that starts at 'I stumble in' and and at 'somewhere I know I've never been', I don't think I should sing that part." Naruto admitted, criticising his own work.

"Well I don't mean to brag, but I've been told by a good number of people that I can sing. If you want, I could sing that part. At least then I will have made some input to the project." Suigetsu suggested. "And I can play Guitar, and you said you needed a secondary guitar. Shika can play bass as well." He added at the end.

"Really? Then we got everything we need. We're already half done, we can probably be finished by Thursday instead of Friday if we get our heads down." Naruto grinned.

Shikamaru smirked at the knowledge. "Looks like we got the best group. The overall project for the semester is to create an acceptable CD with music performed by us on it, with the way things look now, that will be easy."

* * *

"Guys, this is Naruto Namikaze. Naruto these are my friends, Kiba Inuzuka, Choji Akimichi, Sai Edakumi and you have already met Shikamaru." Suigetsu introduced Naruto to the group as they sat down for lunch. Each one of them offered their own little greeting to him, Naruto grinned and nodded in return.

"So Naruto, what brings you to Rikudō at this point in the year?" Choji asked as he took a bite out of his sandwich.

"I got myself and Sasuke kicked out of my old school. And luckily Tsunade let me and Sasuke come hear so late into the new year." Naruto beamed in return, before moving to take a sip of his drink.

"Really? What did you do?" Kiba asked with interest.

"Legal issues stop me from repeating it, but let's just say the principal will NEVER be the same..." Naruto grinned mischievously, giving off a small snicker.

"Really? That bad!" Kiba laughed loudly at what little knowledge he had received.

Naruto himself started laughing, until a light tap hit his shoulder. He turned to see it's source. It was a girl, dressed in the school uniform with the top button of her white shirt undone and a black skirt with black tights underneath. She had long blond hair, lighter than his own, her hair tied together with a red ribbon. Her eyes were a pale lavender, she gave him a warm smile. "Hi, my name is Shion Ayumi."

Naruto looked at the girl rather confused, before he offered her a large smile. "Hi, Shion, I'm Naruto."

"I know, I heard about your accident. I just wanted to ask if your okay?" She asked, smiling in return.

"Oh yeah, I'll be fine. Nothing holds back Naruto Namikaze!" He grinned even larger than before.

Shion giggled softly in return. "Listen, would it be okay if I gave you my number?" She asked, pulling out a piece of paper and handing it to him. "My email's on it as well."

Naruto looked at the paper with mild surprise. "Err... sure I guess..." He responded, taking the paper from her. "I'll text you later and add your number." He continued with a smile.

She smiled in return. "Great, so I'll speak to you later?" She asked, her smile growing when he nodded. "Okay, I'll see you around." She smiled one last time before she made her leave, going back to a group of her own friends.

Naruto watched her leave, before turning to his own group. Kiba was looking at him gob-smacked. "What?"

"Her. Shion is so hot. But she has never shown any interest in a guy in school before. I need to remember to keep you around, Naruto. If you're able to pull girls like her." Kiba spoke with slightly hints of envy, yet grinned in a friendly manner nonetheless.

"No, it's usually Sasuke that gets all the girls. Speaking of which where is he?" Naruto asked, he and Sasuke were supposed to meet for lunch.

Suigetsu only smiled, point his finger behind Naruto as he held his fork. Chewing on the pasta he had got for lunch.

Naruto turned, and sure enough. Sasuke was at a distance, speaking to Hinata. He was far, but Naruto was still able to see Sasuke hand Hinata a piece of paper as Shion had done to him. Naruto's eyes almost went wide, before he started chuckling. "Well that's never happened before. Sasuke being the one to hand his number out." He noted as he watched his raven haired friend.

Sasuke began walking over to them, seeing Naruto staring at him with a grin on his face. "So what's up Sasuke?" He asked cheekily as Sasuke sat down.

Sasuke looked at the blond in return. "I have a date with Hinata tomorrow..."

* * *

_'Early finish!'_ Naruto grinned as he thought of his current situation, he finished at lunch on Tuesday, as did Sasuke. He and Sasuke were going home, while Sasuke went to the car Naruto had to quickly go to the bathroom. So now he was walking alone down a corridor, when he came across an unexpected surprise.

Hinata was at a locker, hers by the looks of things, taking out new folders and placing ones she didn't need back in. "Hinata!" He called out to her, she heard him and smiled timidly at him. "How are you?" He asked with a smile as he approached her.

"I-I'm fine, thank you. And yourself?" She asked meekly in return, closing her locker door.

"I feel great. My leg is in pain, so no real harm was done thank heavens!" He chuckled out.

"I apologise again, Naruto-kun. I didn't mean to." She spoke again, as quiet as ever.

"It's fine, Hinata. Don't worry about it." He smiled still, things went silent after that, awkwardly silent. "So... have I missed anything important in Catering?" He asked, a simple question to continue the conversation.

"N-Not really, Ayame-sensei is still assessing our primary skills. Our first project doesn't begin until next lesson." She responded.

"Oh good, that means I haven't missed much!" Naruto widely, sighing inwardly. It appeared that he hadn't missed much in all of his lessons so far. The girl looked like she was out of things to say, and in all honesty so was Naruto. "So... you and Sasuke?" He jumped to the point, the girl's head shot up to meet him in the eyes. "Sasuke's actually a very nice guy, he just has some problems with opening up to people."

"Y-Yes, I-I never doubted he wasn't a nice person. B-But I think it would be better if we got to know each other better before anything happens." She responded, still in her meek, timid tone of voice.

Naruto grinned at the knowledge. "That's a good idea." He responded in his own usual happy tone. "Well I hope things work out for you two. You're pretty cool, Hinata. And Sasuke's my best friend. So if you got together, we would be spending a whole lot more time together. Which is good because I enjoy talking to you." Naruto beamed widely before walking on. "Speaking of Sasuke he is waiting for me so I best get going or he'll leave me behind again." Naruto snickered, the recent event replaying in his mind. "I'll see you later, Hinata!" He waved over his shoulder, unable to see the faint tint of red growing on the girl's cheeks.

* * *

A/N: Yo! Rinne here! After a massive break from this story it is my pleasure to give you chapter 5, perhaps my favourite chapter so far. Just gonna clear a few things up.

Yes this is one of those 'We're in a band' fics. They will create a band eventually, I was deciding what band they should be, and decided that they will be a range. Sometimes they will do some Screams, other times none, sometime acoustic sometimes heavy as fook. COPYRIGHTS! The lyrics belong to the band Hands Like Houses! The song is called Lion Skin, featuring Jonny Craig, formerly of Emarosa and Dance Gavin Dance, and Tyler Carter, formerly of Woe, Is Me. It is my favourite song ever, please check out the song and the band, they are incredibly good and they deserve more recognition than some artists get these days.

Speaking of which, the lyrics were written in _Italic_, when words are written in _Italic_, that means it is Naruto singing, when they are Underlined, then that means Sasuke is singing. And when the are in **Bold**, that means Suigetsu is singing. Some two styles together means that multiple people are singing, so if you see text in _Italic and Underlined_, that means Naruto AND Sasuke are singing, easy huh?

I've never been one to push reviews, but I've been feeling like I have to many stories, so I'm gonna update all 8 of my current unfinished works, and which ever ones get the lowest reviews I will discontinue and remove. So if you like it, save it with a review.

Pairings, see how I set SasuHina up, if the date turns out bad nothing happens between them. TBH it was easier writing SasuHina then it was writing NaruHina. And YES, Naruto will date Shion (from Naruto Shippuden Movie 1) first, just because the pairing is NaruHina doesnt mean I have to start with it.

In fact I'm gonna explain Naruto and Hinata's relationship in this fic. Have you ever had a friend, of the opposite gender (or the same gender if you are gay) who despite the fact you are just friends, their has always been that tension between you two? That spark? That feeling that you should be something more? That is Naruto and Hinata's relationship for the better half of this fic

Well that's pretty much it. Remember, Review, and Hands Like Houses - Lion Skin.

Til Next Time,

Rinne-Kami, Out!


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